‘The Cycle': Touré Tapped To Co-Host New MSNBC Show

Author and culture critic, Touré, has jumped into the the big leagues as a co-host for the new MSNBC show, “The Cycle,” reports the Huffington Post.

The new program, which the network was set to announce on Thursday, will feature a permanent cast of four: conservative commentator S.E. Cupp, author and pundit Touré, Salon writer Steve Kornacki and former Congressional candidate Krystal Ball. All were previously contributors to the network. The show launches on Monday at 3 PM.

The four hosts and Steve Friedman, executive producer of “The Cycle,” spoke to The Huffington Post about the show on Thursday afternoon.

Friedman said that plans for the new show began two or three months ago, when Ratigan told MSNBC executives he was thinking of leaving.

The hosts likened the show to a dinner party, with relatively freewheeling conversations about the news. All said they were eager to move past the kind of partisan brawling common in cable news, and to veer away from what Ball called “gaffe-fest” coverage of politics.

“Hopefully we can prevent it from turning into ‘this is a Team Blue talking point’ or ‘this is a Team Red talking point,’” Kornacki said.

‘The Cycle’ will take the place of ‘The Dylan Ratigan Show.” Ratigan announced his departure from the show to “experiment” in the market to “seize new tools and take cultural risks to resolve our challenges.”